ROCKVILLE, Md.--Along the Washington-Baltimore technology corridor, the increasing demand for bioinformatics and high-tech personnel is good news for information technology recruiter Mark Rothman. He compared hiring high-tech personnel in the region to "a big game of musical chairs with too many chairs. Computer programmers can choose from 10 chairs." Rothman said the shortage of IT professionals and overabundance of jobs here has boosted his business 100 percent per year since 1992.
Recruiting IT professionals is so competitive that employers whose main business is not information technology face difficulties filling those positions, he said. For instance, Lois Blaine, bioinformatics director at the American Type Culture Collection in Manassas, Va., contracts with Rothman's firm, MYTA, to provide staff who can build and disseminate its databases and convert files and software systems.